Strong but wild DeChambeau paying the price

Bryson DeChambeau’s new muscles were no match for the wind blowing in from the English Channel and the thick thatches of rough at Royal St. George’s. Neither was his driver. DeChambeau’s bulked-up body made its links debut in the British Open on Thursday, and he paid for his long but errant drives with a 1-over 71 in the first round. The 2020 U.S. Open champion was seven strokes behind Louis Oosthuizen.

“I’m living on the razor’s edge,” said DeChambeau, who erased his four birdies with five bogeys at the 7,189-yard layout alongside Sandwich Bay.

“It’s quite finicky for me, because it’s a golf course that’s pretty short,” he said. “And so when I hit driver and it doesn’t go in the fairway ... it’s tough for me to get it out onto the green and control that.”

DeChambeau, who has not finished in the top 20 in the four majors he has played since winning the U.S. Open last year, doesn’t think it’s the nature of links golf that causes problems, rather the weather that accompanies it.

He recalled playing well in the 2015 Walker Cup at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, posting a 2-0-1 record in singles.

“The times I’ve played in the British Opens in the past, I think they’ve been a little wet and windy,” he said after his practice round. “I usually struggle on that in general.”

But that was all before he added 40 pounds of mass and muscle so he could swing faster, hit the ball farther and gain a huge advantage by having shorter clubs to the green, even if the ball is in the rough.

“This is the first time I’ve taken my length to links golf,” DeChambeau said Tuesday. “The key is driving it in the fairway this week. No matter what, you’ve got to be in the fairway. If I get ... into the hay, probably not going to have a good chance this week.”

Instead, he hit just four of 14 fairways in the opening round. And rather than using his new bulk to set up shorter approaches Thursday, he needed it just to muscle his way out of the thigh-high rough.